The Blue-Haired Ogre 85

voice sounded like thunder as he threatened
him, and Hans remembered that it was the
third attempt of which he had been told to
beware. Just as he thought of it he heard
the little muffled warning coming up once
more out of the fern—

“Drop over the edge, drop over the edge,
and run away while you can!” and he felt
so fearful that he was on the point of follow-
ing the advice, when again he seemed to see
the little sisters looking thin and ragged, and
the mother weeping because there was so
little food for the hungry mouths, and his
heart grew strong, and he said to himself—

“ After all I can but try. It is what I have
got to do, and so, come what may, I had
better do it,” and with that up he clambered
again.

But this time was much more difficult, for,
as if to protect his beard, the ogre clutched
it with both big hands, so that not a single
hair stuck out, and there did not seem a
hole into which Hans could slip his fingers.
He peeped and poked in vain, and his heart